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Germany and the Second World War: Volume VII: The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943-1944/5 Hardcover – June 29, 2006

by Horst Boog (Author), Gerhard Krebs (Author), Detlef Vogel (Author)

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By the spring of 1943, after the defeat at Stalingrad, the writing was on the wall. But while commanders close to the troops on Germany's various fronts were beginning to read it, those at the top were resolutely looking the other way.

This seventh volume in the magisterial 10-volume series from the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt [Research Institute for Military History] shows both Germany and her Japanese ally on the defensive, from 1943 into early 1945. It looks in depth at the strategic air war over the Reich and the mounting toll taken in the Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg, and Berlin, and at the "Battle of the Radar Sets" so central to them all. The collapse of the Luftwaffe in its retaliatory role led to hopes being pinned on the revolutionary V-weapons, whose dramatic but ultimately fruitless achievements are chronicled.

The Luftwaffe's weakness in defence is seen during the Normandy invasion, Operation overlord, an account of the planning, preparation and execution of which form the central part of this volume together with the landings in the south of France, the setback suffered at Arnhem, and the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes.

The final part follows the fortunes of Germany's ally fighting in the Pacific, Burma, Thailand, and China, with American forces capturing islands ever closer to Japan's homeland, and culminates in her capitulation and the creation of a new postwar order in the Far East. The struggle between internal factions in the Japanese high command and imperial court is studied in detail, and highlights an interesting contrast with the intolerance of all dissent that typified the Nazi power structure.

Based on meticulous research by MGFA's team of historians at Potsdam, this analysis of events is illustrated by a wealth of tables and maps covering aspects ranging from Germany's radar defence system and the targets of RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force, through the break-out from the Normandy beachhead, to the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Print length

928 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Clarendon Press
Publication date

June 29, 2006
Dimensions

6.5 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0198228899
ISBN-13

978-0198228899
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Horst Boog
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Paperback
15 offers from $85.23
Jorg Echternkamp
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Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Horst Boog, Research Institute of Military History, Potsdam
Gerhard Krebs, Research Institute of Military History, Potsdam
Detlef Vogel, Research Institute of Military History, Potsdam

Project co-ordinated by the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarendon Press; 1st edition (June 29, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 928 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0198228899
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198228899
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,063,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,696 in Jewish Holocaust History
- #17,754 in German History (Books)
- #49,636 in World War II History (Books)

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4.7 out of 5

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F. Carol Sabin

Intensively researched and documented book

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2017

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This volume, the seventh in the Germany and the Second World War series, examines in revealing detail the conduct of the war in the defensive phase from 1943 to early 1945 for both Germany and Japan.
As with the other volumes, also this tome is not definitely for the casual reader and does require some historical background to appreciate fully all the details provided. Again, the wealth of detail and information included in this work is simply staggering. (44 pages of bibliography)

The volume is divided into three parts, each with three to eight chapters (plus several subchapters).
In the first part - „Strategic Air War in Europe and Air Defence of the Reich, 1943-1944” (450 pages) the authors provide in three extensive sections a panoramic history of the initial preparations, different strategies, tactics and techniques of the air war deployed in 1943-1944, then the collapse of Germany’s Luftwaffe to stop overwhelming Anglo-American day/night air offensives. Major raids against military/industrial targets (but also on residential areas), fighter operations, flak defences or the electronic warfare are examined in great detail. Ultimately, the relentless air battles in the skies above Germany that led to this collapse severely weakened Luftwaffe’s fighter arm and overloaded Reich’s air defences as a whole.
There is also six-page coverage of the beginnings of the Soviet Strategic Bombing War.

The resumption of the Strategic Bombing War in 1944 (“Baby Blitz”) or the V-Weapons preparations and offensives received a fair description in the last chapter of this part.
On page 362, I guess there is a minor error: Rotterdam could not be bombed on 4 May 1940 since the air raid actually took place after 10 May 1940 – the date of German offensive in West.

Part II „German and Allied Conduct of the War in the West” (244 pages) is focused on the operations before and during Normandy (Operation Overlord) and South France landings (Operation Dragoon) and follow-on battles, defensive actions during Allied Operation Market Garden or German Ardennes counteroffensive.
Despite the German-oriented approach of the series as a whole, I noticed a major effort from authors to provide a broader context and information by covering Allied decision-making conferences or discussions (Quebec, Potsdam, Casablanca, etc).

Part III „The war in the Pacific 1943-1945” (140 pages) covers in great detail the conduct of operations in different areas of operations such as New Guinea, India, Burma, China or the US landings and recapture of Iwo Jima, Okinawa or Philippines. Interestingly, the authors also concentrated on Japan’s political and monarchy role in the conduct of war or the lack of cooperation between two Axis powers, since their wars aims and interests were clearly different. One of the most important differences revealed between Japan and Germany was the fact that”…opposition to the official government line was still possible …” and was not treated as high treason.
The chapter ends with a gripping “Looking to the future” section which surveys the post war-order in Asia since in this region the changes wrought by WW 2 “…were even more far-reaching than in Europe”.
In addition to an expert narrative, the authors have included 50+ b&w maps, 16 diagrams and 26 tables.
Strongly recommended!

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Bayard B.

4-Stars in general. Some information long known, some really good new information and analyses.

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2023

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This is an excellent volume on the strategic air war in Europe from 1943 to the end of the war, the Normandy invasion, and the war in the Pacific in general during the same time frame. The book is divided into three parts: Part I discusses the British and American strategic bombing campaign against Germany and the German air defenses, Part II discusses the Allied invasion of Normandy and the ensuing land war, and Part III discusses the naval and island land war in the Pacific. Somewhat surprisingly, Part III discusses very little of the American strategic bombing campaign against Japan proper.

Part I is divided into three sub-parts. Sub-part I describes the British and American thinking regarding strategic bombing: the RAF area night bombing and the American precision (more or less) day bombing. I would give this sub-part a 3-Stars rating if you are already knowledgeable about the subject and a 4-rating if you are not. It does not really offer any new analysis or information on the subject. It does give very detailed information on the bombing raids.

Sub-part II describes the development and evolution of the German air defense system. I would give this sub-part a 5-stars rating. It describes in detail the German flak (anti-aircraft artillery) defenses and the day and night fighter system. This sub-part cites or summarizes extensively from the minutes of German high command meetings and conferences among Hitler, Goering, Jeschonnek, Milch, Galland, Kammhuber, and others, memoranda and reports written by them or circulated among them, and records of decisions and orders to subordinates. It is an incredible tale of vacillation and an inability to establish strategic priorities, constantly changing aircraft industrial production targets, and decisions made on the basis of a combination of fantasy, wishful thinking, and outright refusal to face reality.

Some good books specifically on the subject of the ineptitude of the Luftwaffe’s leadership are:

• “The German Air Force” 1933 – 1945 An Anatomy of Failure” by Cooper (1981);
• “Command and Leadership in the German Air Force” by Suchenwirth (1969);
• “The German Air Force General Staff” by Nielsen (1959).
• “The Secret Horsepower Race” (2021) by Douglas. Page 429 contains a British assessment of the competency of the Luftwaffe leadership based on post-war interrogations: “…[N]one of the men occupying high military posts in Germany understood the true nature of science and technical development or appreciated their primary importance in the conduct of a modern war. It is curious that the Luftwaffe, the most technical of the services …, was commanded by men who only imperfectly grasped the essentially technical and scientific character of their force. The responsible heads in the OKW and the OKL never had more than a layman’s conception of the strategic and tactical potentialities, and operational possibilities, of an air force. …[T]he root cause for their failure was incompetence, an innate incapacity to fill the requirements of their office.” Pretty strong stuff!

This sub-part II also discusses the effect of the V-2 rocket program on the Luftwaffe aircraft production and air defense system. Germany was far more limited in labor and manufacturing capacity than either the US or Britain. For example, the V-2 program absorbed an enormous amount of the electronics industry capacity for its guidance system. That meant fewer airborne radars for the night fighters and fewer ground control intercept (GCI) radars and radio systems for the day fighters. The tank manufacturing program also meant less labor was available for the aircraft industry. Then to top it off, the Army consistently drafted skilled engineers, technicians, and aircraft assemblers, trained them as infantry, and sent them to the Russian front to be killed. Pages 420 – 458 describe the “V-Weapon Offensive.” The V-2 program absorbed a work force of 200 000 people. Per page 455, according to a post-war study by the US Strategic Bombing Survey, the combined V-1 and V-2 programs took an industrial effort that was equivalent to producing 24 000 single-engine fighters. I have read elsewhere that Milch thought the programs were the equivalent of 80 000 fighters; perhaps Milch was exaggerating.

Pages 380 – 419 describe the German efforts at strategic bombing against the Soviet Union and Britain in the summer of 1943 and early 1944. It was feeble compared to the US and British bombing attacks against Germany and completely ineffective. There is interesting discussion on how the Soviet aero engine, tank, and synthetic rubber production were concentrated in a few gigantic factories that the Germans thought would be susceptible to severe dislocation if they could be bombed. An excellent book on this subject is “Hitler’s Strategic Bombing Offensive on the Eastern Front: Blitz Over the Volga, 1943” by Degtev and Zubov (2021).

Part II discusses the land war in the west. In general, I would give this Part a 3-Stars rating. It does not tell anything new. Pages 492 – 508 discuss the German intelligence assessments of possible locations and timing of the Allied invasion. As with just about everything else in the Third Reich, it was a jumble of competing agencies. There were at least six different intelligence agencies involved, each with its own parochial view of things. There was no overall coordinating body to combine all the information and arrive at reasonable conclusions. Naval Group West, as it turned out, made the best assessments with regard to both probable location and timing. It was ignored by OKW, of course.

Part III discusses “The War in the Pacific 1943 – 1945.” Sub-part 1 provides a good summary of the military / naval actions in the southwest and central Pacific and in Burma, but it does not really offer anything new. I would give this part a 3-Stars rating.

Pages 737 – 747 in Part III present an interesting account of Japanese efforts to mediate a peace treaty between Germany and the USSR in 1942 – 1944. The thinking was that if Germany and the USSR stopped their war, then Germany could devote more military effort to the Mediterranean and western theaters. This, in turn, would force then US and Britain to divert strength from the Pacific and southeast Asia to counter the German attacks. It never happened, as we know. The German (meaning Hitler’s) attitude was always “we will defeat the Soviets in the next offensive, so no need to negotiate a treaty.” Pages 748 – 755 discuss Japan’s diplomatic efforts to establish a “new China policy” and negotiate a peace treaty with China. It always failed because the Japanese leadership never offered any real political, economic, or military concessions to the Chinese government. In fact, there, was always some confusion as to what “Chinese government” they were referring: Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang government in Chungking, the Communists, or the puppet regime in Nanking, or all three simultaneously. I would give these narrations a 4- or 5-Stars rating, because I have never read of any of this before.

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Wayne Kohlwes

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2018

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This semi-official history of Germany in WWII covers The Air war 1943-44 well and the Western front in 1944

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Nino C.

Great product

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2024

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Quick delivery and reasonable price

Tom McCarthy

This is excellent. A research volume to be dipped into when ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2018

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This is excellent. A research volume to be dipped into when needed. I have bought several of the volumes and find them all fascinating. The detail is tremendous. These are volumes for the serious historian. Anyone not obsessed about military history would be wasting his/her time!

John M. Bannerman

BUY THIS NOW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WW2.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2016

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Phenomenal. Now I just need to pay for all the other books....(I have Vol IV as well - its superlative).

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